1. The Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to marketing through a social networking system. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to allowing social networking users to purchase products through the social networking system or to add products to shopping carts of third-party merchants.
2. Background and Relevant Art
An increasing amount of commerce is originating from social networking activity. For example, social networking systems (such as, for example, the social networking system provided by Facebook, Inc.(™)) are providing a valuable platform through which merchants can market their products (e.g., goods and services), as well as promote their physical (e.g., brick and mortar) and virtual (e.g., websites and mobile applications) retail. Social networking systems provide value to merchants in a number of ways. For example, social networking systems can facilitate a viral spread commerce activity among users, thereby increasing market presence of a product without direct action by a merchant providing the product. Furthermore, users of social networking systems provide user-specific information to the social networking system that can be used to provide highly-tailored advertisements and other marketing content to the users, thereby increasing purchase conversion percentages for merchants and increasing the effectiveness of marketing activities.
Despite the many advantages of using social networking systems for commerce, marketing products through social networking systems still suffers from one or more disadvantages. Primarily, users of a social networking system that are interested in purchasing or investigating a product made known to them through a social networking system, are typically required to shift their focus away from the social networking system or a corresponding application (e.g., a mobile social networking application or a web-based social networking application) in order to obtain additional information regarding the product or to purchase the product. For example, a user viewing a product advertisement provided through a social networking system (e.g., within the user's social networking news feed), may be required to shift their focus to a separate website or application in order to learn more about the advertised product or initiate a purchase of the product. This can be disruptive to the user's experience on the social networking system and may discourage the user from taking any action with respect to the advertised product. Furthermore, if a user is interested in the product, but does not want to immediately shift focus away from the social networking system, the user's interest in the product may fade or the user may forget about the product entirely before the user takes any action with respect to the product.
These and other disadvantages may exist with respect to commerce facilitated by way of a social networking system or service.